A theoretical and computational basis for CATNETS

The main content of this report is the identification and definition of market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. These build the theoretical foundation for the work within the following two years of the CATNETS project. --Grid Computing

Theoretical and Computational Basis for Economical Ressource Allocation in Application Layer Networks - Annual Report Year 1

This paper identifies and defines suitable market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. --Grid Computing

SLA-Oriented Resource Provisioning for Cloud Computing: Challenges, Architecture, and Solutions

Cloud computing systems promise to offer subscription-oriented, enterprise-quality computing services to users worldwide. With the increased demand for delivering services to a large number of users, they need to offer differentiated services to users and meet their quality expectations. Existing resource management systems in data centers are yet to support Service Level Agreement (SLA)-oriented resource allocation, and thus need to be enhanced to realize cloud computing and utility computing. In addition, no work has been done to collectively incorporate customer-driven service management, computational risk management, and autonomic resource management into a market-based resource management system to target the rapidly changing enterprise requirements of Cloud computing. This paper presents vision, challenges, and architectural elements of SLA-oriented resource management. The proposed architecture supports integration of marketbased provisioning policies and virtualisation technologies for flexible allocation of resources to applications. The performance results obtained from our working prototype system shows the feasibility and effectiveness of SLA-based resource provisioning in Clouds.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Conference Keynote Paper: 2011 IEEE International Conference on Cloud and Service Computing (CSC 2011, IEEE Press, USA), Hong Kong, China, December 12-14, 201

Notes on Cloud computing principles

This letter provides a review of fundamental distributed systems and economic Cloud computing principles. These principles are frequently deployed in their respective fields, but their inter-dependencies are often neglected. Given that Cloud Computing first and foremost is a new business model, a new model to sell computational resources, the understanding of these concepts is facilitated by treating them in unison. Here, we review some of the most important concepts and how they relate to each other

Financial Derivatives Market for Grid Computing

This Master thesis studies the feasibility and properties of a financial derivatives market on Grid computing, a service for sharing computing resources over a network such as the Internet. For the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to perform research with the world's largest and most complex machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Grid computing was developed to handle the information created. In accordance with the mandate of CERN Technology Transfer (TT) group, this thesis is a part of CERN's dissemination of the Grid technology. The thesis gives a brief overview of the use of the Grid technology and where it is heading. IT trend analysts and large-scale IT vendors see this technology as key in transforming the world of IT. They predict that in a matter of years, IT will be bought as a service, instead of a good. Commoditization of IT, delivered as a service, is a paradigm shift that will have a broad impact on all parts of the IT market, as well as on the society as a whole. Political, economic and physical factors advocate a market for standardized computing resources supplied by multiple professional providers, benefiting from economies of scale. We argue for the trade of Virtual Servers as the standardized bundle of computer resources. Continuous trade of homogeneous resources allows for scheduling market efficiency and liquidity, but may entail a risk of erratic, unpredictable prices. We therefor e construct a complete, coherent Grid economy, consisting of both a spot market and a derivatives market. While the spot market is the trading place for the computer resources, the derivatives market aims to disperse the risk among those who are willing to invest in it. Because the Virtual Servers are non-storable assets, normal arbitrage theory cannot be used to price derivatives contracts. We propose to solve this issue by creating storable swap contracts priced by an auction-based market, where we argue that the price process follows a geometric Brownian motion. Taking into account the absence of arbitrage in the swap market and the requirement for a complete market, we offer a theoretical framework for martingale pricing and hedging of derivatives written on swaps

Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities

Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Coalition Formation and Combinatorial Auctions; Applications to Self-organization and Self-management in Utility Computing

In this paper we propose a two-stage protocol for resource management in a hierarchically organized cloud. The first stage exploits spatial locality for the formation of coalitions of supply agents; the second stage, a combinatorial auction, is based on a modified proxy-based clock algorithm and has two phases, a clock phase and a proxy phase. The clock phase supports price discovery; in the second phase a proxy conducts multiple rounds of a combinatorial auction for the package of services requested by each client. The protocol strikes a balance between low-cost services for cloud clients and a decent profit for the service providers. We also report the results of an empirical investigation of the combinatorial auction stage of the protocol.Comment: 14 page

Theoretical and Computational Basis for CATNETS - Annual Report Year 3

In this document the developments in defining the computational and theoretical framework for economical resource allocation are described. Accordingly the formal specification of the market mechanisms, bidding strategies of the involved agents and the integration of the market mechanisms into the simulator were refined. --Grid Computing